On Air News Read for July 14, 2017

New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald announced, yesterday, that his office, along with the Merrimack County Attorney’s Office, the Concord Police Department and the New Hampshire State Police, has begun a criminal investigation into St. Paul’s School in Concord. MacDonald said he launched the investigation in light of the report recently released by the school detailing sexual assaults of students by teachers and the exposure of student sexual conquest rituals, such as the “Senior Salute,” a practice which led to the highly publicized prosecution of Owen Labrie, a graduating St. Paul’s student in 2 0 1 5.

Another allegation of a sexual assault committed via a similar ritual reported last month is currently under investigation.

St. Paul’s: Trouble continues

The A G’s investigation will focus on whether school officials endangered the welfare of children. MacDonald also said the investigation will address any other crimes determined by the evidence and that he was confident that St. Paul’s would fully cooperate. Any person with information regarding criminal conduct at the school is urged to contact Investigator Mark Myrdek. (271-1263 or e-mail [email protected].) We have his contact information with this news read at Girard at Large dot com. We’ve also uploaded a copy of the report detailing the sexual misconduct of teachers against students and linked to the letter the school sent when releasing the report to parents and the community.

In my “hood” again

Hey, now I know why my wife was sending me text messages on Wednesday morning to tell me about the Manchester Police Department’sSWAT Team lobbing flash bombs into a house around the corner from ours. Turns out they were executing a search warrant in conjunction with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department at 4 7 Linden Street. Once inside, they arrested fifty four year old Tony Pickard who lived there along fifty two year old Maurice Groulx. They also seized twenty eight point three grams of crystal meth, over fifteen hundred dollars in cash and more than twenty five hundred dollars of gold and silver. Pickard and Groulx were taken into custody on two separate warrants.

Bennett: WANTED

Who police didn’t find was fifty four year old Paul Bennett, who was also a target of the raid. Bennett, who wasn’t home at the time, has two outstanding drug related warrants for his arrest. If you know of Bennett’s whereabouts, please contact the Manchester Police Department at 6 6 8 8 7 1 1 or Manchester Crimeline, where you can provide an anonymous tip and be eligible for a cash reward, at 6 2 4 4 0 4 0.

We have Bennett’s picture and description with this news read at Girard at Large dot com. (Bennett is described as 5’05, 150 lbs. brown eyes and grey hair.)

News from our own backyard continues after this.

Ambrogi: Seeking 4th term

The Candidate Crawl to City Hall continues in the Queen City, albeit at a snail’s pace. Here are yesterday’s filings:

In Ward One, Sarah Ambrogi filed for reelection to the school board.

In Ward Two, Ryan Richman, of Fox Hollow Way, has thrown his hat into the ring for alderman, creating a primary for that seat in September.

In Ward Three, Phillip Harris, of Manchester St., filed for school board.

Freeman: Another try

In Ward Five, incumbent Lisa Freeman will run again for the school board.

Ward Seven had a flurry of activity as incumbent Alderman William P. Shea filed for a twelfth term and Brian Cole, of Howe St., filing to run against him.

In Ward Eight, former Alderman, State Senator and firefighter Betsy DeVries will again seek the ward’s aldermanic seat, creating a primary for the seat in September.

In Ward Nine, Michael Ricker, of Kenberma St., filed for alderman, creating a primary for that position as well. We’d been told he was going to run for school board, but…oh well. Nice to see another newcomer!

The filing period for all city offices, including ward moderator, ward clerk and ward selectman, closes a week from today, July 2 1st. We’ve posted the complete list of filings as of yesterday’s close of business with this news read at Girard at Large dot com.

Edwards: Good first filing

While we’re on the topic of elections, the campaign of Republican First District Congressional candidate Eddie Edwards announced it will report having raised more than one hundred twenty thousand for its first filing with the Federal Election Commission. Edwards’ consultant Derek Dufresne of RightVoter said more than eighty percent of the funds raised came from New Hampshire donors. Dufresne said the campaign was excited by the tally. Quote:

“Eddie is not a career politician, and donors are not giving to him as some sort of political payback, but rather they are supporting him because they believe in him and his message.”

Town Hall: No water

In case you’re wondering why Town Hall in Goffstown was closed yesterday afternoon, it’s because of a water outage. The outage also forced cancellation of the Planning Board’s meeting last night.

About The Author

Richard H. Girard is a well known and highly respected conservative public figure and opinion maker in southern New Hampshire. A native of Manchester, NH, Rich has devoted more than two decades to serving and educating the community about the critical issues in local politics and government. Rich’s diverse background includes running for and holding public office, providing leadership and management for other candidates’ political campaigns, extensive experience in the public and not-for-profit sectors, being sought as a political commentator by media outlets across the region, and having started and run three businesses, including this one.